Whicker: Manny Machado is still young, still in a hurry

Share this:

Baltimore Orioles’ Manny Machado gestures as he approaches home plate on his two-run home run in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Frank Valdez has seen them come, seen them go. He has loaded up the pitching machines and listened to the crackling practice, through long Miami nights.

He knew the minor leagues and he knew they wouldn’t hold Manny Machado very long.

“I told him he would be in the big leagues in three years,” Valdez said Wednesday night. “I don’t know if he believed it, but he proved me wrong. He got there quicker than that.”

Machado was drafted by Baltimore in 2011, the same day Mike Trout and Bryce Harper were picked. On Aug. 9, 2013 Machado saw his name in the ninth slot of the Baltimore lineup card. He was 19 years old, and he grounded to shortstop against Kansas City’s Will Smith. Next time up, he boomed a triple into the right-center gap.

The next year Machado led the American League with 51 doubles and 667 at-bats. That’s at 20 years old. Since then Machado has gotten bigger, stronger, more powerful, better. He turned 26 on July 6 and is already eligible for free agency at the end of this season. On Wednesday the Dodgers traded five young players to Baltimore and got Machado to play 66 regular-season games and, they hope, a month of playoffs.

“I’ve known Manny since he was a kid,’ said Valdez, a former minor league player for the Twins. He runs a baseball academy in Hialeah, maybe 10 minutes from Machado’s home.

“He was always very respectful,” Valdez said. “He would work hard all day long. Even when he was little, he was a man.”

Now Machado has a chance to be The Man on a club that has become remarkably egalitarian. Everybody plays multiple positions, everybody hands off the baton. Machado was a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman who has become a somewhat questionable shortstop, but he’s here to play, and so Chris Taylor will presumably move to second base. Everybody else will scoot over.

The Dodgers score enough runs, but they hit .232 against lefties with a .713 OPS. Machado has hit only six of his 24 homers this year off lefties, and only 33 for his career. He also hit .360 with a 1.140 OPS, and hit 17 homers, at Oriole Park, which is a pied-à-terre compared to Dodger Stadium.

In truth, the Dodgers probably needed bullpen help more than Machado. But they have time to find somebody, with 13 days until the trade deadline, and they’re basically just stating their ambitions. When you lose Game 7 of the World Series there is only one acceptable outcome left. Making Machado a Dodger was important. Making sure he wasn’t a Phillie or a Diamondback was more so.

Teams as dreadful as the Orioles are hopelessly disadvantaged at these times. They’re desperate to get bodies for a player with one suitcase already packed.

The Dodgers gave up five players. The most celebrated is outfielder Yusniel Diaz, who homered twice in Sunday’s Futures Game.

Dean Kremer is an improving right-hander who pitched for Israel in the World Baseball Classic. A Canadian reliever named Zach Pop has made minor league hitters either strike out or produce cans of corn. Rylan Bannon, from Xavier U., has been a power source in Rancho Cucamonga. A couple might break through. All should be replaceable.

Had the Orioles kept Machado through the end of the season and then made him a qualifying offer, they would have gotten a compensation pick between the first two rounds of the 2019 draft. That player likely would have been a better bet than anything the Dodgers gave them, but who knows? Max Muncy wasn’t on anybody’s hot list, either.

The Cubs played rent-a-trophy in 2016 with Aroldis Chapman. The Royals did it in 2015 with Ben Zobrist. The Blue Jays tried it in 2015 with David Price and got nowhere, although they did give Detroit Matt Boyd, a pitcher they could use today.

The Angels got Mark Teixeira in 2008. He was fine, but they didn’t escape the first round, and Teixeira escaped to the Yankees. In those days you got a first-round compensatory pick. This one became some kid from Millville, N.J. who got criticized by Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday for being too natural and unassuming.

Normally one would urge the Dodgers to sign Machado long-term, but there are luxury tax considerations, and shortstop Corey Seager and third baseman Justin Turner are cornerstone players.

Winning one’s first World Series since Billy Ocean was signing “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” is something that justifies all excesses. Machado got into the big blue car Wednesday. Frank Valdez says he can beat the traffic.